Nader Launches New York Ballot Drive with Rally and News Conference

NADER TO LAUNCH PETITION DRIVE FOR NEW YORK BALLOT LINE WITH CAMPAIGN RALLY, NEWS CONFERENCE, IN NYC, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18

Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will kick off the Nader/Gonzalez New York ballot drive Wednesday, June 18, with a news conference at 6:30 p.m. and a rally at 7:30 p.m., at the Peter Norton Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 2537 Broadway at 95th St.

In a major campaign policy speech, Mr. Nader will elaborate details of his broad, majoritarian platform, draw a sharp contrast with the corporate-sponsored Democratic and Republican party candidates, and connect the dots between pressing national and New York City problems and solutions. The speech will also spotlight examples of vitally important issues favored by New Yorkers and all Americans, championed by the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign, yet opposed by Obama and McCain.

While Mr. Nader calls for a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal from Iraq, McCain favors "staying the course" indefinitely, and Obama's plan leaves 175,000 to 220,000 soldiers and contractors in Iraq, threatens to further militarize the U.S. approach to the Middle-East by putting combat forces in Kuwait and rattling the sabers vis-à-vis Iran. Nader/Gonzalez favors reversing U.S. Middle East policy and stands with the majority of Jewish Americans and Arab Americans which polls repeatedly show support a two-state solution—Israel and Palestine--as a way for peace in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the Iraq war and the bloated, wasteful military budget are bankrupting our country's future and robbing cities like New York of the funds necessary for repairing or expanding clinics, schools, subway systems, bridges, sewer and drinking water systems and other crumbling infrastructure. Mr. Nader would turn those wasted dollars back toward meeting domestic challenges, like: providing single payer Canadian-style, private delivery, free choice of doctor and hospital, public health insurance that covers all Americans; repairing failing public works and facilities; a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act; a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources; an end to the corporate welfare and the corporate crime wave that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars.

The city crumbles for lack of funding, and the Mayor promotes raising property taxes, the New York Yankees asks for more hundreds of millions in tax-exempt financing for their Stadium project, and the neighborhood wonders about replacements for its treasured uprooted parkland.

Mr. Nader will call for an end to the tax abatements for corporate fat cats on Wall Street, like Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and others, the off-shoring of jobs to places like China that send us back toxic, faulty products in return.

A Democratic Congress and Republican White House have given American working families oil price speculation and price gouging, Bear Stearns-style bailouts with your tax dollars and a corporate crime wave the magnitude of which hasn't been seen in our county's history. The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign would vigorously crack down on the corporate fraud, waste and abuse and the government policies that facilitate such lawlessness.